It’s not exactly a secret that Ricky Williams—a guy who once compared him using marijuana to Popeye eating spinach—smoked a lot of weed during his 11-year NFL career. He was very open and honest about it when he played pro football, and he continues to speak freely about his love for weed now that he’s retired. He even helped open a weed-friendly gym in San Francisco recently! But in his new Sports Illustrated documentary, Ricky Williams Takes the High Road, which will premiere on SI.com on Wednesday, Williams reveals that his relationship with weed throughout his career was even deeper than we imagined.
SIreleased a short snippet from the doc on Monday, and it features Williams talking about the drug tests that he used to be subjected to during his playing days. According to him, he holds the record for most drug tests taken by a pro athlete, as he was subjected to hundreds of drug tests throughout his time in the NFL.
"I might have the world record for most times drug-tested," he says in the SI teaser. "At least 500 drug tests."
Damn. At least?! In the same clip, Williams’ wife Kristin speaks, and she says Williams was tested so often that the drug testers who routinely came to their home were "like family." She also says Williams once had an opportunity to cheat on a drug test and didn’t take it.
"The one test where he got caught that had him suspended for the four months, we could have switched it that day if we wanted to," she says. "That [drug tester], we knew him so well, he left a sticker at home, and so he tested Ricky and left [the tests] sitting on the counter and left for 45 minutes and then came back with the sticker that he needed. But Ricky’s an honest person. That never entered his mind, I don’t think."
Williams admits that he didn’t enjoy failing drug tests as an NFL player, but he says he eventually found a way to look at his failed tests as a positive.
"It was difficult at the time, but looking back, I’m appreciative of it, because it was the first step to letting go of the image," he says, "and starting to find more of who I was underneath of the image."
Williams has been retired from the NFL for five years now, but he’s still one of the most fascinating people connected to the game of football.
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